Marc's Short Messages

We finished a small family project: Europe in 1000 jigsaw pieces.

 

While checking the news on Gaza, I noticed that Bart Repko redesigned his website 'Never Be Silent'. I like the map and the clear way the site is set up. Earlier this year I joined him for a walk on the walls of Jerusalem.

Arjan de Kok started a new Dutch simple church network called 'Simple Church Fellowship', besides the well known information hub Indehuizen.nl.

We're in Twente for a few days around Christmas, enjoying walks in the crispy cold.

The boys performed their Christmas musical today. My parents were over for the occasion. More on David's weblog.

I'm searching for some unconventional church planting stories. If you have a lead, drop me a line. This week in Joel News International an in-depth story on the rise of 'cowboy churches' in the Southwestern United States, that are reaching people at an astounding rate.

Peter did his swimming exam today and came home with his A certificate. He was so fast in the water, that he had to wait for several minutes till the others also touched the finish line.

Just imagine a Europe without Germany. For the Dutch some 'Lebensraum' in the East wouldn't be bad as the sea level continues to rise. But honestly, I'm glad we still have the Germans around. Who else should keep the European Union organized now the romantic French are having the presidency and the artistic Czechs are next? In case you wonder where this peculiar map comes from and what it means, check out this explanation on the weblog 'Strange Maps' with around 350 of these kind of maps.

Yesterday I caught up with Evert Jan Ouweneel, and today I met with the 'prophetic group' of the House of Prayer in Utrecht to pray into the next phase (the current team is dissolving and moving out). In both meetings 'hope' was the central theme. Hope for the presence of God in whatever circumstance, hope for restoration. People today are not looking for truth, but for hope. Where do people's hearts and existential desires connect with God's heart and desires? How can the Kingdom of God be a reality among us?

The first two books on emerging church (planting) in the Dutch context are being released. Johan ter Beek, who was one of the first guys in the Netherlands who thought about church as a network, and currently pioneers the Nomads community in Soest, wrote 'EmergingChurches.NL. New vision for theology and church in a postmodern culture'. Nico-Dirk van Loo and Martijn Vellekoop, who both pioneer new expressions of church, wrote 'Pushing and Pioneering. New ways of being church'. I translated the titles in English for the readers of my blog, but both books are in Dutch.

Today I'm launching an experimental micro version of Joel News. It's a bit like this blog: it contains a short, encouraging highlight in sms style of what God is doing. Of course the full edition for which people can sign up here is more interesting, because it adds more meat to the bones. But I want to find out if we can also serve a wider audience of former readers and people with time constraints with something much more concise.

Johan ter Beek of Emergingchurches.nl made a provoking and humorous on-site video report of a Christian fundraising dinner for ministry in disadvantaged areas. It shows quite a gap between the business class style of doing things and the more incarnational approach that most pioneers in these areas are taking.

What started nine years ago, is still going strong: at this moment 66 groups in 13 countries are praying 24-7. Today in the international edition of Joel News two inspiring stories on prayer: one in the parliament building in Romania, and another in a truck in Canada.

Reviewed an article on house churches for Visie, the main Christian magazine in the Netherlands. It's not a very inspiring representation of what house church is all about. Perhaps it's time to come up with a media spokesman who can bring across a more inspiring and consistent message?

I like the Gridview application on Facebook that puts all my friends in nice little boxes. More faces here.